November 2004

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REDEMPTION REQUIRES that radical evil and radical atonement collide.

THE FACT that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day. Our salvation is "external to us." I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ.

BY GRACE you have been saved! Whatever else we do, praying and singing is but an answer to this word spoken to us by God himself… . The Bible alone contains this sentence. We do not read it in Kant or in Schopenhauer, or in any book of natural or secular history, and certainly not in any novel, but in the Bible alone.

WHEN JESUS PRAYED to the one who could save him from death, he did not get that salvation; he got instead the salvation of the world.

AS CHRIST SAYS: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a person is born from above, they will not see the kingdom of God … . Yes, it would all be in vain, even if they were baptized by Peter, Paul, or Christ himself, if they were not baptized from above with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

CHRISTIAN CONVERSION has both an objective and a subjective dimension to it. On the one hand, Christ's death and resurrection have secured eternal salvation for those who believe … . But … the beginning point of conversion also involves a clearly subjective, personally experienced dimension that results in some radical changes in the believer; and the Spirit is the absolutely indispensable element for this dimension.

JESUS died on the cross—that's history. Jesus died for me—that's salvation.

WE ARE SAVED to know God, to enter his wonder-filled Presence through the new and living way and remain in that Presence forever. ...